Amy Casey’s Hulking, Acrylic Cityscapes

Amy Casey’s acrylic paintings take elements of the urban landscape and creates monstrosities and hulking, twisted versions of the city. Her newest works are collected in show at Zg Gallery in Chicago titled “Critical Mass.” The paintings in this show highlight the artist’s talent for engrossing detail and controlled chaos. The show kicks off this weekend.

“Cities are fascinating creatures that I am just beginning to scratch the surface of” the artist says, in a statement. “The work and organization that goes into a city’s creation and evolution, the constant shifting and adaptations and the sometimes hidden history of these changes, and a city’s dependence on civilian cooperation are things I like to think about. Reflecting this interest, burgeoning cities have begun to fill in the voids in my paintings. As in life, with a sort of trial and error, some efforts work better in making the whole precarious heap hum. I am consistently fascinated by the resilience of life and our ability to keep going in the face of sometimes horrendous or ridiculous circumstances. My paintings celebrate this fascination and my love of the urban landscape.”

The artist, a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, attended Cleveland Institute of Art. She briefly moved to Chicago afterward, but is currently based in the Tremont neighborhood in Cleveland. She says that this neighborhood has “infiltrated” her work, and most of the buildings she paints are real.